I love this plan that Joseph Watson explains in his post. Let's get behind it and pass it on to Mr. Pickens. . How can we do that? It's great and will be very effective. Good luck

The Pickens Plan is an example of what used to drive America and made it into a great country-a logical and practical solution which uses our domestic resources and workers to (at least substantially) solve a great problem facing our nation. Unfortunately an idea that is simple and logical is rarely appreciated or acted on by our politicians. Why? Maybe it's as simple as they just don't like the fact that a businessman (an oilman, even worse) has come up with a credible strategy for reducing our dependence on foreign oil that they (both democrats and republicans) have failed for to do for decades. Just kind of makes them look bad. More likely though it is because they are being legally bribed by the corporations and people that stand to lose from it. Great changes always involve the transferring of economic and other forms of power from certain groups of people to others. It is unavoidable when technologies change, etc. But when our elected politicians get most of their campaign financing from corporations and PACs whose job it is to maintain the status quo, it is no wonder that we have not had a real energy strategy in this country for 30 years. Let's hope that the preview of $147 oil and the prospect of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression is enough to wake up our "public servants" to the enormity and urgency of this issue

What a wonderful idea, Joseph! You are so correct that visual is sometimes the very best way to comprehend numbers. The only thing I would add to your plan, would be to visually show how many of those $$ spent on the diesel ended up in OPEC's pocket, versus how much of those $$ stayed home with the clean energy plan. Excellent! I'll be surprised if Boone hasn't already gotten his army working on that commercial!

Joe, Great idea and well described. I can hardly wait to see the ad. I can relate to his idea because I've always been a VISUAL learner. I think a lot of others are too. Boone, you need to listen to Joe and people like him that have good ideas. How about a Pickens Plan Think Tank? JPK

Joseph Watson has a great idea, aptly described and eloquently written. I hope it's used by the Pickens Plan. Kurt Goss' idea is practical and powerful. Bravo, this is what we need to get the rest of the country thinking creatively! It's our time to be INVENTORS, person by person, not just wait for a large company or a government to come up with or enact good ideas.

As a young man in grade school i watched in horror as my president was killed on national t.v. this lives in my mind every day when i hear people complane about how bad we have it here in America. shame on those whom think our country should take care of them and kiss their back side and make things (just right) for them.. i have served our nation in the time of need, and i am proud to have done this... now is when our people,of the people should stand to gather and face this problem,say to our people in d.c....(we have had enought of this garbage) we have to stickup for our fellow countrymen and women and for all of our sakes the chrildren which we have raised and the grandkids which will have this great nation after we are all gone. and if anything will work then this nation and all of its people will survive to carry on the greatness for which this nation was founded..

i believe that a 'Restoration Plan' is in order, to Improve the Value of Life; we need people more aware of their Environment, more Respectful of their surroundings, more Understanding when it comes to the Safety of all life, more Giving to the committment to improve life, together; more Preprared with the Necessarities that all Humans require..____Humanity First

I can vision the Pickens plan as the new rail system of the 21st century. Boone has been down the road, and he's got our attension. The time is right, the younger generation has the mind-set to move this country forward. Mike Flanagan

Mr. Watson, I couldn't agree more, I think you have a winning strategy there! It is difficult to fully comprehend numbers and impacts and especially the synergy that can result when we combine answers! I love the plan and I too was picturing the verizon commercials even before you mentioned it. I laughed when I got to that part! You know guys and gals, I feel like I am better off by being part of this movement, even if we don't accomplish anything. Why? Because I like to surround myself with intelligent people, and I really enjoy communicating and participating in such a great event like Pickens plan because we have so many brilliant people here. Like Joseph Watson!

In early December, before the vote on bailing out the auto industry, I wrote to my state's Senator, Claire McKaskill, and urged her to push to make conversions to CNG a manditory part of the plan of each auto manufacturer who gets bailout $$$'s to convert a large percentage of their existing trucks to be CNG/gasoline hybrids (it is not feasible for heavy-duty trucks to be electricity/gasoline hybrids). A fairly eimple mechanical job, the parts are available and lots of jobs would be quickly created or at least kept. I pointed out that the IRS could give large rebates to consumers who purchased pickups and larger trucks which were so modified. This makes more sense to me than the tax credits customers currently get for buying E85 vehicles (85% ethanol). To-date I have not received a response from my senator on this topic and $19 billion of the money has already been distributed (news on the radio (PBS) this morning.) We've got to write and write and write our Congress People! Again and again. Keep their feet to the fire! One clarification I'd like to add to "Innocent" above. Yes, most of us do get natural gas delivered to our homes, but it is not COMPRESSED when we receive it. I believe I've heard that the pressure at my meter is less than 10 PSI. In order to go any long distance in a vehicle, the natural gas must be very dense and at a high pressure, perhaps at such a high pressure that it is even liquified. We will need to purchase some type of compressor in order to utilize the natural gas that is delivered to our homes. But the best use of CNG is in our nations trucks and delivery vehicles. Those CNG tanks are really, really big! Maybe another solution is to have the Natural gas distributed in large pressurized tanks to the end user, you know, the way we used to get our morning milk 75 years ago. There already exists a distribution system for LPG (liquid petroleum gas) to many folks who run their heaters in the winter using LPG. So the distribution problem seems minimal to me. These distributors would more than likely love to increase their delivery routes, hire more delivery personnel and make lots more money. I got a pamphlet in 1995 from the Union of Concerned Scientists which gave detailed instructions on how to convert a gasoline powered truck to a CNG/gasoline hybrid (with a switch to enable the use of either fuel, whichever is available.) 1995, it's been around and fairly simple to do for at least the last 20 years. If there had been a $0.30 or $0.40 cent tax on gasoline for the last 20 years, with the money diverted to CNG conversion, we'd already have been there. See why we need to increase the gasoline tax and stop subsidizing petroleum companies!? People will use another fuel when the true price of gasoline must be paid at the pump. We all need to do our research. There are lots of sites on the WEB. So many inventions have been created in the last 40 years that we can already take advantage of! We must educate ourselves and then we can pass the word on to our friends, relatives and acquaintences. First, we must start with conserving and we can do that right now in many, many ways. Then we will have money to spare to buy more and more efficient appliances and vehicles. If it makes sense to keep American dollars in the American economy instead of sending them to the Mid-East and South American oil barons, then why doesn't it make just as much sense to keep my personal dollars in my pocket instead of sending them to the utility companies? If every retired household on Social Security had solar panels on their roofs or their own residential scale wind turbine, then their utility bills would be minimal and it would not hurt them to skip their COLA (Cost of Living Adjustments) for a year or two to pay for the installation of their solar panels. Then, even if their Social Security is smaller for the rest of their lives, their utility bills also, will be reduced for the rest of their lives and the value of their homes will increase. They can live better and Social Security can be saved for everyone! We need to re-think the manner in which we live. No longer can we say "Well, we've never done it that way before!"

I really want to see the Obama Administration and the Pickens Plan give more thought to "Water Powered Vehicles". The technology has been around for years but was always suppressed by BIG OIL. Now that we're trying to get away from Foreign Oil, Fossil Fuels, and create a Greener Environment "Water Powered Vehicles" are Americas Future. Let's put money into this technology so we can develop a Convertor for our existing vehicles so they can run off water. Any type of water, Rain Water, Salt Water, Well Water. LET"S GO AMERICA!!!!!

We must stop natural gas drilling until there is a safe alternative to the current process (e.g., hydro-fracturing), and until we can guarantee our health and the safety of the environment are in balance. The new congress and administration will be quick to plug the holes that Cheney, Bush and their cronies were able to sneak through back in 2005. Wind/Solar = fantastic. Natural Gas drilling = disaster

I like the ideas presented by Watson and Goss. I'm sure there are others out there with good ideas too. Let's round 'em up and use as many as we can. As I've heard many people say over the years "We can put a man on the Moon and build Space Stations, etc. but, we can't make a car that gets decent mileage? We can't find a less polluting form of energy? We can't find a sustainable form of energy to keep us from the mercy of others? Come on...we're the most Technologically advanced nation on the Earth. We, as a nation appear to have been duped or mislead by the idea that we must depend on someone else for our energy needs. Sure, we need to preserve some of our own resources but we also need to be able to sustain everyday life. For the average person or family, that means transportation to and from a place of employment. Not everyone wants to live in the same area that they work nor, is it possible or even practical in some cases to do so. Sure, you can live without a car. Hundreds of Thousands if not, millions do it every day. They are also dependent on someone or something else for their daily transportation needs. I don't particularly like that idea. We were pitched and sold this idea by automakers for many years. The Oil companies made it happen for us and made some incredibly wealthy in the process. Both, here and abroad. I'd rather our money stay here and benefit our own country. For all the advancements we've made, we still could use some improvement. But, as we saw last year, we're at the mercy of those countries that don't have our well-being in mind or even want it. Coupled with our own business-world greed and lust for huge profit overnight, we became hostages for the very convenience of being able to live where we want, go where we want, and do it when we want. Given our Nation's history of not wanting to be like everyone else and be told how and when things would be done, we have ironically become Energy Hostages. We got this way, by giving in to large corporations including Oil companies, Financial Institutions, and other countries instead of telling the Foreign nations to feed the Oil to their own families and see how far it got them. They might have the Oil but, they have little to no food. Which one can they do without for the longest period of time? My bet is, we can get along without Oil longer than most of them can survive without food. Cruel it might sound but, life can be brutally cruel. Alternative fuels for vehicles have been around for years, there's just not been enough intrest ($$$) in them by the ones capable of making them a practicality for everyday use. Even Germany in WWII managed to make and use synthetic fuels as well as use diesel in a number of their aircraft. For a small country with limited resources, they sure managed to put a lot together in a relatively short time. They were a formidable enemy for several years. Luckily, we were Triumphant. We first have to get rid of the idea that any other fuel is going to have to take the place of Gasoline in Form, Fit, Function, and Economy. Listen closely here...Virtually Nothing is going to take the place of Gasoline in the form of a fill-up and do it with the relative ease and economy that gasoline has given us so far. It's just not possible with our present day mindset. So many are opposed to Ethanol as an alternative to gasoline or even supplement it. Yet, it's at least a step in the right direction along with pursuing every other available form of alternative fuel that we can come-up with. It's better than being held hostage. The mindset has to change. We might have to bear the things that aren't so pleasant to get us less dependent on Foreign Oil such as tapping our own resources no matter where they are located and increased cost, until production costs can be lowered. Just like the first year model of any new car, the price of new cars are never cheap, but the prices always come down after the initial production is started and the sales pick up. It's imperative to our well beingand survival as a Nation that, we become independent as much as possible. We spent a lot of effort money and lives getting the freedoms we have today. All those freedoms that we spent so many years defending the very idea of, could be gone in a lot less time than it took to gain them. We certainly aren't perfect as a Nation but, there's no better place to Live than the United States. Besides, nobody is perfect. There is of course, some common sense to be used here in our energy use and pursuance of alternatives. That seems to be lacking everywhere you look these days. It costs you in some form or another, to Live on this Planet. Daily life is not free. Bring it on Boone! I'm all for getting us off the "Dependency" on Foreign Oil.